Abstract

Curvature in biological membranes can be generated by a variety of different molecular mechanisms such as protein scaffolding, lipid or protein asymmetry, cytoskeletal forces, etc. These mechanisms have the net effect of generating stresses on the bilayer that are translated into distinct final shapes of the membrane. We propose reversing this input-output relationship by using the shape of a curved membrane to infer physical quantities like the magnitude of the applied forces acting on the bilayer. To do this, we calculate the normal and tangential tractions along the membrane using the known material properties of the membrane along with its shape. These tractions are a quantitative measure of the response of the membrane to external forces or sources of spontaneous curvature. We demonstrate the utility of this approach first by showing that the magnitude of applied force can be inferred from the shape of the membrane alone in both simulations and experiments of membrane tubulation. Next, we show that membrane budding by local differences in spontaneous curvature is driven purely by the generation of traction in the radial direction and the emergence of an effective line tension at the boundary of these regions. Finally, we show that performing this calculation on images of phase-separated giant vesicles yields a line tension similar to experimentally determined values.